My Take on Grizzly Fest ’11

When I wrote Palin Exposes Problems in GOP by Not Running, it was originally written as a stand alone piece – my analysis of how glaringly obvious the weaknesses in the Republican Party were when they are not shrouded by the light of a potential Palin presidency. Roderic Deane graciously invited me to discuss the piece on his BlogTalk Radio show as he and others were organizing Grizzly Fest ’11.

Since I am spending tomorrow with my son, it’s highly unlikely I will be able to listen to Grizzly Fest live or participate in the forums. I will be certain to listen to the podcast at my first opportunity. This is an important online summit that should be viewed by not only Palin supporters, but by conservatives, Tea Partiers and Republicans across the greater coalition that will be working to unseat President Barack Obama in 2012 as well.

Which brings me to what I would like to focus on if I was able to attend the summit. I would hope that some of the people who read this post take an interest in discussing the role of the Palin movement in shaping the future of the Republican Party. As a lifelong Republican, a part of me laments how party insiders and the party establishment seem to be resisting candidates who stand for Constitutional conservatism, smaller government and who would like to see an end to cronyism and the disproportionate influence the permanent political class has in not only Washington, DC, but within the party itself.

Grizzly Fest ’11 is an opportunity for a disheartened Palin supporter like myself to move forward enthusiastically with the next step the Palin movement will be taking. Rather than wander leaderless in the wilderness like I was before Palin hit the national scene, I can take heart that because of Governor Palin’s work over the last three years, we have been motivated to form a movement that would have propelled her to the presidency had she chosen to run. Grizzly Fest represents an opportunity to unite in an effort to save our country and to continue to support Governor Palin in her efforts.

I believe our movement has grown tremendously over the last three years to the point where we could have gotten Governor Palin elected president had she ran. Although we will not get to test that theory this go around, if you believe that we are a movement strong enough to get someone elected president then you have to believe we are strong enough to effect the change necessary in both our government and the Republican Party in order to renew and restore America.

Over the course of the last three years – as a result of my blog, Blogtalk Radio and the new media interaction between Palin supporters on Twitter, Team Sarah and Conservatives4Palin, I have had the opportunity to communicate with great people like Frank Aquino, Jedediah Bila, Tammy Bruce, Roderic Deane, Ron Devito, Adrienne Ross, Thomas Schmitz, Jackie Siciliano and many others active in the Palin movement and who are actively participating in Grizzly Fest. A bi-product of being part of such a large movement like ours is that when I mention people, I miss so many others because there isn’t enough bandwidth here to list you all.

One person who has been able to capture the essence of the Palin movement in the blogosphere is Josh Painter who put together the blogroll which is featured on his site Texans For Sarah Palin and which is the source for the Sarah Palin-Friendly Blogs which are listed on the Grizzly Fest website. It’s a great honor to see my site listed there.

This post is more than just a shameless reciprocation to the folks over at Grizzlyfest.com, however. It is an affirmation that we have built something that will continue to further the cause of bringing the shine back to the city on a hill. Because of Sarah Palin, we are a powerful voice instead of a bunch of broken men and women who would have been watching the end of the conservative movement three years ago had John McCain not chosen her to be his running mate.

Our futures and the future of our great nation will depend on our continuing to grow the movement and our deepening relationships among ourselves and others who will come into the fold as we and Governor Palin continue to speak out and hold Washington’s feet to the fire.

As much as I’ve gotten to know many of you who might be reading this, what really blew my mind is that I have come to know Sarah Palin supporters that I didn’t even know existed until after she decided not to run. This validates my theory that had she announced, millions of us would have poured out of the wood work much to the dismay of her detractors. The media, which has gone to contortionist lengths to mock her and downplay the level of support she has, will soon find that they will no longer be able to hide our numbers and Palin’s effectiveness as a leader from the rest of America.

If they think she and we are gone just because she’s not running, they have another thing coming.

As our country continues to flounder economically, the Palin army has an opportunity to continue to grow and network with each other. We can stand for free market principals. Who knows, we can even be profitable in our endeavors to get into the media, pop culture or academics because of our affiliations with each other. We don’t have to go broke crusading for what needs to be done to fix our great nation. We can’t afford to wait for the government to get out of our way. We need to build our way back from the ground up.

I’m not saying this to be opportunistic. I’m saying this because it is a fundamental belief of mine that if we are going to stop the liberals, we must beat them at their own game and infiltrate the media, the culture, academia and ultimately the halls of government itself. Think about how liberal these institutions have become and then ask yourself how that happened.

Look at what the liberals did with their party after the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention. There’s a lesson for us. If they were able to turn the Democrat Party into the liberal party, we can infiltrate the Republican Party and make it the conservative party. In all areas, we can use our ideas and their playbook to defeat them. Look at what Andrew Breitbart has been able to do both commercially and politically. There is no reason why we need to go broke and continue to be victims of a socialist agenda while pushing forth with what’s truly right for America.

We need to become a free market country again. We can begin with ourselves and our party. We can build from the grass roots up. We can lay the foundations of economic prosperity by putting more boots on the ground, more boots to the butts of statists and cronies and someday by putting a pair of our boots on the floor underneath the desk in the oval office.

It’s our nation. Let’s work toward making it better again. Let’s bring the words integrity and merit back into the lexicon of those who represent us in Washington and who decides government’s role in our economy. Regulating, handing out and bailing out is not free enterprise. Statism severely hinders the mobility the society needs so that individuals are not stuck in their economic status or class.

We are a lean mean fighting machine! Let’s show government that fat with taxpayer money, drunk with power and stupid with ideas is no way to go through life.

I will be talking about Grizzly Fest on my BlogTalk Radio show Wednesday Nov 2, 2011 at 11pm Et 8pm Pt. If anyone involved would like to be a guest on my show to talk about Grizzly Fest, please email me with subject line: “Want to Talk Grizzly Fest” at reagantman@gmail.com.